Making a habit of Habitica – Bag of Tricks

Habitica is an online task management application that, as its name implies, helps you build habits, end bad habits, and manage your daily, and weekly tasks. You can use it for work tasks and your personal life. The thing I find to be true with any task management tool is how the user feels about it and how it works in accordance with how they think. If you like the tool, you use it. It doesn’t matter how well the tool works for other people, if you don’t like it, you won’t use it, and it won’t help.

Habitica utilizes gamification (in the form of a role-playing game) to motivate you with rewards for completing tasks.  It takes the form of a role-playing game. You pick a class, get gear, level up, and distribute stat points. If that sounds familiar and enjoyable, Habitica might be your Quest. If RPG’s (think Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, and Link) are something you avoid or couldn’t care less about, this might not be your cup of tea.

Habitica organizes tasks into three categories: Habits, Dailies (though they can be any time frame), and To-Dos. As someone who plays RPGs, the aspect of getting a cool item by checking things off can be addicting… which is the point. There are also quests with bosses and special rewards. They can be done solo or with a group. Yup, there are groups if you want to join, but you don’t have too. If you do join a group, your tasks are private, no one needs to know you are trying to build a habit of flossing, or are late on your report to the Library Board. There are even a few different librarian groups!

Task management programs can be a useful thing at the workplace and at home, especially for all the monthly and weekly tasks that are easy to forget or put off. Your entire staff can form a group and cheer each other on to weed all the shelves at the library.

As we talked about in other parts of this Bag of Tricks series, having resources at your fingertips and a basic familiarity with up-and-coming technology can come in very handy for better serving patrons and can also give you a bit more confidence. While I suggest that you create your own Bag of Tricks, I have an example Bag of Trick to get you started at

Kieran Hixon